A Softer Way To Live: Japanese Principles For Calm And Clarity - by Mark Rowland

COURSE

A Softer Way To Live: Japanese Principles For Calm And Clarity

With Mark Rowland

This course is an invitation to slow down and explore a softer way of living through gentle Japanese principles that have supported balance, simplicity, and wellbeing for generations. Rather than asking you to change who you are, these teachings offer a different way of relating to effort, imperfection, and daily life. Over the course of this journey, you’ll be guided through timeless ideas such as Kaizen, Ikigai, Kintsugi, and Wabi-Sabi, each explored in a grounded, practical, and compassionate way. Every lesson includes a short teaching and a reflective practice or meditation, helping you not just understand these principles, but feel them in your body and everyday experience. You can expect this course to support calm, clarity, and steadiness, especially if you feel tired of pushing, overthinking, or holding yourself to impossible standards. Each session offers simple reflections you can carry into your day, encouraging small, meaningful shifts rather than dramatic change. This is not about doing more, but about meeting life with a little more care, presence, and kindness.


Meet your Teacher

Mark Rowland is a meditation teacher and guide on Insight Timer, known for his calm, compassionate approach to wellbeing and inner life. His work supports people who are feeling overwhelmed, worn down, or disconnected from themselves, offering practices that emphasise gentleness, presence, and self-kindness rather than force or self-improvement. Drawing on mindfulness, reflective practice, and lived experience, Mark creates sessions that feel human, steady, and accessible. His teachings invite listeners to slow down, soften inner pressure, and develop a more caring relationship with their thoughts, emotions, and daily lives. In this course, Mark brings together timeless Japanese principles with modern reflective practices, helping students explore a softer way of living that honours imperfection, balance, and small meaningful shifts. His intention is not to change people, but to support them in coming home to themselves with greater ease and understandin

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5 Days

23 students

5.0 stars

17 min / day

Presence

English


Lesson 1

Beginning Gently – Kaizen

Today’s session introduces the Japanese principle of Kaizen as a gentle way of beginning without pressure or self-criticism. Rather than focusing on improvement or productivity, this lesson explores how small, kind steps can support steadiness and trust in everyday life. Through reflective teaching and a grounding meditation, you’ll be invited to soften your relationship with starting, effort, and change.

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Lesson 2

Living With Purpose – Ikigai

Today explores the Japanese principle of Ikigai, not as a search for a grand life purpose, but as a gentle way of reconnecting with what quietly gives life meaning. This session invites you to soften the pressure to “figure everything out” and instead notice what already brings a sense of aliveness, care, or quiet satisfaction. Through reflective teaching and a grounding meditation, you’ll be supported in relating to purpose in a more human, realistic way.

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Lesson 3

Finding Balance With Enough – Hara Hachi Bu

Today explores the Japanese principle of Hara Hachi Bu as a gentle way of listening to your limits and recognising when something is enough. Rather than focusing on restriction or self-control, this session invites a kinder relationship with balance, energy, and appetite in all areas of life. Through reflective teaching and a grounding meditation, you’ll be supported in noticing when to pause, soften, or stop before exhaustion takes over.

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Lesson 4

Honouring What Has Been Broken – Kintsugi

Today explores the Japanese principle of Kintsugi as a way of relating differently to difficulty, damage, and the parts of ourselves we might wish were not there. Rather than trying to fix or hide what has been broken, this session invites a gentler, more respectful way of meeting life’s cracks and repairs. Through reflective teaching and a grounding meditation, you’ll be supported in allowing care, dignity, and meaning to exist alongside imperfection.

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Lesson 5

Making Peace With Imperfection – Wabi-Sabi

Today’s final session explores the Japanese principle of Wabi-Sabi, which invites us to make peace with imperfection, simplicity, and the natural unfolding of life. Rather than striving to fix or perfect ourselves, this lesson offers space to soften our relationship with change, incompleteness, and uncertainty. Through gentle teaching and a grounding meditation, you’ll be supported in letting life be as it is, without resistance.

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5.0 (3)

Recent Reviews

Ken

February 6, 2026

Wonderful class, it helped a lot, learning how to be comfortable with change, even if change seems to be taking too long, or is different than we expected. Thank you for teaching how to be relaxed with progress, even if life isn't the way we expected it to be, in the long run, it all seems to turn out for the best.

Olivia

January 26, 2026

Another beautiful course! Just wanted to let you know that it appears Day 3 is a repeat of Day 1. Loved the course and am learning to live more moment to moment, allowing life to unfold in its own way. Love your offerings!

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